


I Quietly Crash And The Tables Turn

by ageekfrxmaus



Category: All Time Low
Genre: Age Difference, Alex: 19, Baltimore, College drop out, Fluff, Friendship, I reckon this is just gonna be a lot of fluff, Jack: 26, M/M, Moving, Older Jack, They both really like Blink-182, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-29
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-02-27 09:28:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2687690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ageekfrxmaus/pseuds/ageekfrxmaus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex is a college drop out who still lives at home because he gets pancakes every Saturday morning.<br/>Jack has missed Baltimore ever since he left 10 years ago, so he's moving back.<br/>And guess who lives in his old house.<br/>Alex; a Blink-182 loving kid who Jack can be himself around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter is just a little taster to see what you guys think. I also couldn't think of good tags so, any suggestions are welcome. I hope you guys like this 500ish words. Future chapters will be about double this.  
> As I am just writing and haven't really got a plan, any suggestions for the story will be taken into account :)  
> Enjoy..  
> xo J

Jack hasn’t really been himself since he left Baltimore – ten years ago to the day. He missed his hometown. He missed the people. He missed the sights. He missed the smell.  
But by two o’clock this afternoon he wouldn’t have to miss it, he would be back there. He even found a house in the street that he used to live in. For years he acted out; disobeying his parents and being a general rebellious teenager, all because he had to move. Eventually he grew out of it but he never forgot about Baltimore.  
He picked up the last object left in his New Jersey flat, his prized guitar. Jack walked out to his crappy sedan, signalled to the men in the moving van and then jumped into his car, his guitar riding shot gun.  
He turned Blink-182 up on his stereo as he started the drive back to his home town.  
~  
“Alex, if you’re going to drop out of college, at least be helpful around the house,” Alex’s mum half yelled from the bottom of the stairs.  
“What do you mean, I cleaned the whole fricking bathroom last weekend!” Alex yelled back.  
“Don’t you get smart and swear at me, Alexander, you get down here now and clean the lounge room, your father and I are having friends over tonight.”  
“Oh, yay, I’m so enthused,” Alex countered as he dragged himself out of bed, “I didn’t even fucking swear at her!” he said to himself. He ran his hands through his hair, trying to straighten out his bed head until he gave up figuring that the only thing that would get through that mess was his straightener, which broke last week. Granted he shouldn’t have had it on the sink when he was cleaning the bathroom but still, it sucked and now his hair was unruly as heck and he couldn’t do anything about it until he got payed in a week and a half.  
“Hiya, son,” Alex’s dad – Peter – greeted as Alex passed him on the stairs.  
Since Alex hadn’t had his morning coffee yet and didn’t want to anger his dad by saying something sassy, he decided to grunt in response as he half stumbled towards the kitchen.  
A short stack of pancakes was sitting on the table with everything already set out for him and coffee already on the brew, and his parents wondered why Alex’s hadn’t left home since he came back after dropping out of college.  
“Alex, have you heard that we’re getting a new neighbour?”  
Well, she’s changed her tune, Alex thought to himself.  
“No, mum, I haven’t,” Alex said politely.  
“Apparently this is his old house, we bought it just after he moved out.”  
“So he left ten years ago? How old is he? Why is he coming back?”  
“I don’t know, he’s meant to be arriving this afternoon just down the street, I was thinking of inviting him to dinner with our friends’ tonight, what do you think?”  
“Doesn’t really affect me either way,” Alex said as he picked up his first coffee of the day.  
“Well, you’re coming over with me to say hello later in the day since you aren’t working today.”  
“Fine, but right now I’m going to get changed and then clean the lounge like you asked me to.”  
“Thank you,” Isobel said as she moved down the hall.


	2. New friends (who like Blink-182)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack gets invited over to his old house for dinner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have finished a chapter on this but not my other fic, oh well. Enjoy.  
> xo J.

“Home sweet home,” Jack shuddered at the sentence that he just said aloud to his new house filled with boxes that he probably won’t finish unpacking for the next year or so.  
He picked up his ipod dock from a pile of electronics in the corner of the supposed ‘lounge room’ which looked more like a storage area since he hired cheap guys to move for him and they didn’t care whether a box said ‘bathroom’ it was all going in the lounge room apparently.  
“Moving in music, what is good moving in music?” Jack wondered as he scrolled through his music collection, “Oh, fuck it, Family Reunion will have to do.”  
He moved some furniture around and started to work on some of the most important boxes such as CDs and DVDs, after a few songs he heard someone knock at the door, glad that the song wasn’t on Family Reunion at this point in time, he did want to make an at least half good impression on his new neighbours or whoever was knocking on his door.  
“Hello?” Jack said as a question as he opened the door to a woman and a younger man who seemed to be her son.  
“Hi, I’m Isobel, I live down the road a bit in what apparently used to be your house.”  
“Really? Wow, I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I did, I’m Jack by the way.”  
“Nice to meet you.”  
“You too. And is this your son?”  
“Yes,” she said, nudging Alex to make him talk.  
“I’m Alex,” he said looking up at the man in front of him.  
“Nice to meet you, Alex,” Jack said politely to which Alex just nodded.  
“I was wondering whether you might want to come to dinner at our place tonight, we thought it would be nice for you to see your old house again and we were having some other people from the neighbourhood over tonight anyway.”  
“That would be really nice, actually, I think you might have saved me, I don’t think I have one thing in the house to cook for dinner, I planned everything except that.”  
“We’ll see you at five then,” Isobel smiled up at Jack.  
“That you will.”  
“Is that Blink-182 playing?” Alex mumbled to the ground.  
“Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that,” Jack said as he moved slightly closer to the boy.  
“I said; ‘is that Blink-182 playing?’.”  
“Yes it is, are you a fan?” Jack asked, his eyes lighting up, anyone who liked Blink-182 was automatically his friend.  
“Of course! How can anyone listen to them and not be a fan?” Alex replied smiling at Jack for the first time.  
“Dude, you’ve gotta come over sometime once I’ve finished unpacking, I have almost all of their stuff on vinyl, everything sounds better on vinyl.”  
“That would be awesome.”  
Just as Jack was about to say something his phone started ringing, he looked at who was calling and then looked up to his visitors with an apologetic look which was aimed more at Alex than Isobel.  
“It’s my mother, she will keep me talking for at least half an hour, I don’t want to hold you guys up.”  
“That’s fine, I’m sure you know the way to our house, it will be nice to have someone new in the neighbourhood.”  
“I’ll see you at five. It was nice to meet you both. Goodbye Isobel, bye Alex.”  
“Bye Jack,” Alex smiled again before him and his mother turned to leave.  
“Hi, mum… yes I got here safely… the old house hasn’t changed much…I’m going over there tonight for dinner with the new owners…no they invited me, I promise…”

“Alex, why are you dressed up? Why aren’t you just sitting in your room?” Isobel asked as she looked sceptically at her son.  
“I am joining you for dinner,” Alex pronounced as he straightened his shirt.  
“That’s nice, at least the new neighbour gets you out of your bedroom.”  
I wouldn’t mind if he took me into his bedroom, Alex thought to himself.  
“He likes Blink, I plan to be friends with anyone who likes Blink.”  
“Okay, dear. Well, can you great the guests when they come in then?” Isobel said and the second before Alex could answer her the doorbell rang and Alex was off to open the door.  
“Jack!” Alex said in a voice that was way too pleased for a person who he had only just met.  
“Hey, Alex! I picked up some wine, I thought it was a good gesture?” Jack said as he used his free hand to scratch the back of his neck and to Alex he didn’t look old enough to buy alcohol.  
“Might want to give that to mum rather than me, then,” Alex said as he led Jack into the house.  
“Jack, nice to see you again.”  
“Hi, Mrs. Gaskarth. I brought wine?” Jack questioned more than said, but Isobel took the bottle out of his hands and then told the boys to go relax.  
When they were in the lounge room Jack finally started to relax.  
“I don’t do dinners often, I don’t even really do family dinners much, it’s all a bit weird, I feel too young to be acting like an adult.”  
“How old are you?” Alex wondered.  
“Twenty-five, what about you?”  
“Nineteen.”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah, is that hard to believe?”  
“I don’t know, just, you look older and younger than that.”  
“I don’t know whether that is a compliment or not.”  
“It’s neither, really.”  
There was a silence for a bit which Alex finally decided had become too awkward.  
“So, what’s it like coming back into your old house after ten years?”  
“It’s weird,” Jack said as he looked around at the lounge room, “seeing different stuff in the house is the weirdest part though. Have you guys been in it the whole ten years?”  
“Yep, I mean, I moved away for a bit but that barely counts, it was really only a couple months.”  
“Why?”  
“I went away to college, stayed there for a bit, decided that it wasn’t for me and then came back.”  
“Fair enough, it’s not for everyone.”  
“Did you go to college?”  
“Yeah, I studied business stuff. That’s what I want to do here, start a business.”  
Alex smiled at this and then the doorbell rang again.


	3. Unpacking is the worst part of moving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Filler chapter. I was having writers' block but I thought I would put up what I had just to give you guys something rather than not update for a whole month.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been having trouble writing this whilst trying to keep on track with my other fic. But I will persevere. If anyone would like to beta for me I would love you forever. I promise there will be a full length chapter soon!  
> xo J

Dinner was quite uneventful, Jack and Alex shared screwed up faces with each other across the table whenever the others were talking about boring topics.  
Alex learnt that Jack used to be in a band when he was in high school, that he was an avid music fan, he was actually really smart and he was, in fact, gay.  
Jack learnt that Alex had always wanted to be in a band, that they liked most of the same music besides the limited knowledge on Alex’s part, that Alex tried to study Literature at college and that he had no idea whatsoever of what he was now going to do with his life.  
The evening ended with Alex offering to help Jack set up his place since Alex didn’t have anything better to do and Jack gladly accepted knowing that he might actually stay on track of working his place out if someone was there with him, although he didn’t realise that Alex could be very distracting when he wanted to be.

“Jaaaack,”  
“What’s wrong, Alex?” Jack asked in a mock motherly voice, half laughing at the younger boy’s antics.  
“I’m bored out of my brain! I swear I’m going to die of boredom.”  
Jack started laughing outright now, “You’ve done two things since you got here and complained and asked me questions the rest of the time.”  
“So?” Alex mock pouted.  
“Okay, ten minute break, put on some music.”  
“Yay! Alex said jumping up on the couch and then running over to Jack’s – amazing – stereo.  
“You are a diva and a five year old rolled into one.”  
“I am a fabulous five year old diva thank you very much!” Alex said falling onto the couch next to Jack after ‘What’s My Age Again?’ started playing.  
“So, do your parents know?”  
“Know what?” Alex asked, confused as to the change of conversation.  
“That you’re gay?” Jack started laughing.  
Alex spluttered, trying to hide his embarrassment, he still wasn’t sure of his sexuality, “I’m not, what? I thought it was inappropriate to say things like that now?”  
“I’m gay,” Jack pointed out.  
“So that makes it alright?”  
“In my books it does.”  
“You’re a fuckhead.”  
“Respect your elders, dude!”  
“You’re what, barely even six years older than I am.”  
“I’m old enough to beat you in any video game, just pick one and we’ll see who should have the respect here. By the way, it’s me.”  
“Guitar Hero.”  
“Well, once you actually help me sort out this fucking mess of electrical goods then we can set up the PlayStation and get to business.”  
Alex automatically jumped off of the lounge and plunged his arm into the closest box, pulling out a purple box with then length of a piece of paper. It didn’t take a second until Jack was out of his seat, taking the box off Alex and then running down the hall to hide the box in his bedroom.  
“Fucking, close call,” Jack whispered before walking back to Alex.  
Alex just stared at him, perplex.  
“What? Is a guy not allowed to have things that are private?”  
“Whatever, man,” Alex said as he walked over to a different box that specifically had ‘ELECTRICAL’ written on it. He was acting casual but he had really just made a top priority mental note to find out what was in that box.  
Eventually they had got most of Jack’s electrical items set up when he decided that it was time to thrash Alex in Guitar Hero, which he did with the skill and precision that said he had spent way too much time playing video games than actually studying whilst at high school and college.


End file.
